Hello, Goodbye

This past week was the memorial service and burial for our 15-year old girl named Beryl. We had just met her and hadn’t had much time to get to know this amazing young lady very well. She was a great role model for the other children and will be greatly missed. For those who haven't followed us recently, here’s a brief recap.

About 10 days after we arrived, Beryl came down with a headache that wouldn’t go away and a sudden high fever. Rhonda took her to a clinic to have her checked. Bloodwork was negative, so she was given IV fluids and medications and sent home. The next day she was doing better, able to eat, sit up and talk. That night though her condition worsened very quickly. She became unresponsive and was rushed to the hospital and admitted to step-down ICU. Over the next few days her condition went up-and-down. She was ultimately transferred to full ICU and put on life support. Five days after she was admitted, she finally succumbed to her illness (which ultimately turned out to be a very agressive and extremely rare condition - Cerebral Malaria).

During the memorial service a number of our children’s home teens participated in presenting an original poem written about Beryl, reading scripture, leading several worship songs and being pallbearers. Beryl’s body was then taken to western Kenya to be buried on her family's land. Since then the children have been adjusting to life without her. Our church here has done an amazing job stopping by many times to encourage the kids and pray with them. Thank you also for the many friends who prayed with us during this difficult time.

 

Hold Fast!

We chose the keep the children home from church the week that Beryl passed to spare them the numerous questions they would face from the well intended church family. Larry volunteered to lead a church service here on property for the staff and children. Several of the high school kids lead the worship music. They did a great job leading with many songs they were familiar with and they also sang several new songs that we taught them. Larry then shared the sermon. His ending challenge was from two different passages of scripture. The first was from Hebrews 6, verses 18-20.

“We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to
grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go.
It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances
right to the very presence of God where
Jesus, [is] running on ahead of us.”

The thought was that during difficult times we should hold tightly onto the promises of God because they are a lifeline for us. At times though, we “loose our grip”. During those times, a second promise is even more important. That was from Isaiah 41, verse 10 which tells us,

Don’t panic. I’m with you.
There’s no need to fear for I’m your God.
I’ll give you strength. I’ll help you.
I’ll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you.

Larry illustrated this by having one of our younger boys (Stobba) grab onto a rope and see how long he could hold on. This represented OUR attempt to “hold on to the Lord.” He could hold on for only about 15 seconds then had to let go. He then had Stobba get on his shoulders and try holding on again. After the kids counted to 50 we finally stopped. This showed everyone that we can hold on as long as we need when we remember that it is God who is actually holding us during hard times when our strength fails.

A Quick Trip to Razikki

One of the children’s homes that we will be working with is called Razikki Children’s Home. It's in Kaliffi, which is about 90 minutes north of Mombassa on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. While our home in Nairobi has a “big city” feel, Razikki is very rural. Last week we took a quick trip out there to meet the staff and children. We will make several trips a year out there for Rhonda to help out with the medical needs of the kids and to encourage the staff. It was very different than anything we’ve experienced here in Kenya. The kids were very shy toward us since they don’t get the number of American visitors that the kids in Nairobi see.

Since we had never see the Indian Ocean we took in a few of the sights and tried some of the local street food including young coconut and kasava with chili peper and lime. Both were amazing!

Prayer Requests

We would greatly appreciate your ongoing prayers. Here are some things you can keep in mind.

• Continued emotional and spiritual healing for those who were closest to Beryl.
• Wisdom for both of us as we adjust into our new roles here.
• For our long term work permit paperwork to be finalized soon.
• For rest and recovery as we have “hit-the-ground” much faster than we anticipated.